Morlas Memoria – Fresh Act Februar 2015

Our Fresh Act of this month comes from Germany, and Theo Johne (Guitar, vocals) tells us more about his band …

Please introduce yourselves! What do you do besides music?
Hi! We are 5 guys and one girl from Dresden in Germany. First of all, there is our drummer Sammy, who is in the middle of his education so that he can make his cymbals one day on his own. Tobi and me are students at the local university, our bass player Leibe takes care of children and our vocalist Leandra studies at the music university.

When was your band founded?
When Leandra startet her vocal education, we had the idea to use it in some way. At a party, when I was a bit drunk, I talked to our former drummer Marcel Schmidt. He knew some other guys who were not attached to bands yet, and so things happened.

Your name was originally Morlas Enigma. Why did you change it?
Bored lawyers of a 90s music project – take a closer look to second part of our former name – wanted to take us to court because they thought that this word is their legal property. How foolish!

You recorded your first album “Follow the Wind“ in 2014. How did you write and record the songs?
Normally I come up with some song fragments that I developed to our rehearsals, where we work together on them. Finally the vocals are done, mostly by Leandra, who usually also writes the lyrics. The album was recorded then in the Silent Sound Studio in Dresden with Peter Vanselow. He is familiar with both classic vocals and guitar music, so he was our first choice.

Some of your songs are enriched by very detailed orchestral parts. Did you compose them on your own or did you get some help for it?
One was written by Tobi, the others were written by me. In addition we got some advice from Peter in the studio. But normally we compose everything on our own. We are grown ups, you know.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxlAvnVYDmw

Did you already receive some offers from labels? Or how is it possible to purchase your record?
There were already some requests, but I don`t think it is useful to take the first option already. We will wait and see what happens. Until then, the album can be purchased via our website. We also decided not to sell it via known platforms. And we did not regret this decision yet.

You also shot a highly professional video clip for `Follow the Wind` (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxlAvnVYDmw). What did you have in mind and how could you realize it?
Fame, women and millions, of course! What else, haha! Well, making a video is always a funny thing. Making a trip with your bandmates and doing something for the band is just fun. And it is very nice to add a visual part to our music, too.
The video was conducted by Michael Seiler, who did some videos yet. We gave him a script and he conducted it. It was a bit difficult to find an appropriate location, but fortunately we live in Eastern Germany and we have some nice places here.

You have also played a couple of shows, including one on a Czech festival and the Wave Gotik Treffen at Leipzig. How did you get these shows?
The show in Czech Republic was conveyed by our friends from the Black Metal band Zeitgeist. There homebase is close to the Czech border, so they have some contacts there. Originally it was their show, but they could not play it. So we replaced them. We were very thankful for it because it was one of the highlights yet.
The story of the WGT show was a bit more linear: We simply wrote to the event manager, asked one or two times again and got the job. That`s it.

Your style of music provokes comparisons to a well-known Finnish band. What do you think about these comparisons?
Well, when Leandra and I founded the band, we had something in mind. We had some idols and those were these superb Finnish guys. Our music is actually inspired by them, but it is a bit rougher. Comparisons are normal, and getting compared to your idols is a nice compliment.

What are your plans for the near future?
Playing concerts, recordings albums, making people happy, having fun and also becoming a bit more famous, haha.